Cannes 2011: The One-Sentence Reviews

What was good (and not-so-good) at this year's major film festival besides Brad Pitt's sunglasses

May 17, 2011

What was good (and not-so-good) at this year's major film festival besides Brad Pitt's sunglasses — snap judgments that'll come in handy during Oscar seasonBy Stephen Garrett

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Cannes 2011: The One-Sentence Reviews - Bonsai

The Cannes Film Festival is a kiss on the lips and a punch in the gut, a feast of world cinema that elevates your soul even as it sends you reeling towards the toilets. Herewith, a Twitter-slim recap of selections both transcendent and gutter-grim to bring you up to speed on this year's crop of arthouse contenders.

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Midnight in Paris

Owen Wilson hobnobs with Hemingway, Fitzgerald in fluffy lit-major fantasia as delicious and empty as a soufflé.

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The Tree of Life

Icarusian auteur Terrence Malick thrillingly overreaches in his enthralling, insipid take on life, the universe, and everything.

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Sleeping Beauty

Tart Emily Browning gets sucker-punched in this chillingly spooky morality tale about a girl, a brothel, and a roofie.

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We Need to Talk About Kevin

We need to be ominously portentous, in this heavy-handed study of maternal suffering and teen homicide.

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Restless

Show me a goth-twinged tweener Love Story with a Kamikaze ghost, and I'll show you hip auteur Gus Van Sant's noble misfire.

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Poliss

French cops crack down on the baby-tossing, kid-fingering creeps in Paris, dramatically lowering attendance at Euro Disney.